There are many avenues for concern, but the one I want to address now is the problem to animals. People are littering these masks everywhere, including at the French Riviera; they are the new trash of the world.
Kindly consider the animals and wildlife when you do this. If nothing else, at least cut the ties as animals get caught in them and cannot escape them, leading to all kinds of problems. especially for birds. Just as COVID has found people all over the earth, these masks are affecting all types of animals, including sea life as well as the birds above, not to mention the ones on land who injest them. In addition, don't forget that the masks have that thin metal strip on the top. These will spilt open the digestive tract of certain animals, leading to an extremely painful death. If you see people you know littering with these or your children are, perhaps share these thoughts with them if you too are an animal lover.
Here is some information on this topic you may find interesting:
https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/07/1069151
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60vDnOeAcoA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogVsC-QHPfE
Stay healthy!!
Stefano Riznyk
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Here you have a lovely article that was published on PBS, and if there is someone close to you that you are trying to keep safe, you can perhaps obtain some ammunition from what this doctor has to say; enjoy:
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A lot of people have asked me how we came to design our masks and what was involved. It's a long story to just create the masks, let alone the design. To make my job easier, I will refer them to this blog, that I will share with all of you. If you haven't spent time in textile manufacturing, it should be a real eye-opener, as it was at first to me when we manufactured ties. There are many great videos on Youtube that will show you what is involved in the manufacturing of clothing. Bear in mind, we are not making mass-produced, and machine-produced masks, they are all individually hand-made so we can guarantee quality levels.
Now, before one mask was made:
Many FedExes back and forth for many changes, modifications, and implementation. Additionally:
Be safe and healthy
Stefano Riznyk
Chief Creative Director
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We have customers who like our designs, and others who like our safety. Most people feel our price is fair for the quality we deliver, but some have thought that the price should be lower. I thought I would address this issue to answer some questions.
The business articles may state that you should ignore these issues as you cannot please everyone, I want to respect everyone who took the time to visit us. As a business lawyer, I know that many of my CEO clients do not know how certain things work in business (ie self-made) so I want to open the door to this beautiful world to show you and provide all the answers you need.
What people do not realize is that the most expensive part of any garment is often the 'Made in USA' part. In the USA we have minimum wages, labor laws, and other provisions for their safety. We agree with this as there are some horror stories in this industry. However, for a number of reasons the cost is substantially more in the USA, and here is why:
I may find a manufacturer with the machines but who doesn't deliver on time or return phone calls; been there done that. Integrity in every part of the process is key.
That's one mask.
Now, for those who are surprised by the cost of our masks, let's look at what goes into the back end of a fashion company:
I hope this explains everything the people concerned about price have wanted to know, and this answers the question someone asked: "Can someone explain why these masks are so expensive". On the other hand, one of our customers reflected: "People are interesting. They will spend $15 on a drink, but when your life is at stake, $20 is a fortune".....
Be Safe
Stefano Riznyk
Chief Creative Director
What the article states, and is good to know is the concept of exposure quantity:
If the virus is pervasive, it may be a matter of time before you are exposed to it. If you only receive a small dose, your body will have time to create antibodies and protect you. If you receive a large dose, the body may be so overwhelmed by the attack that it cannot cope in time.
Some people seem not to be affected by the Coronavirus and others are getting killed by it. People who have been exposed to other coronaviruses may be obtaining protection from T cells, that recall encounters with other human coronaviruses that they encountered in the past.
In summary, do everything you can to limit the amount of virus you possibly come in contact with. You cannot lose your mind over the fact that no matter what you do you will most likely come in contact with some of the virus. However, by doing everything you can to limit the quantity of the virus you come in contact with, you could create your own antibodies, and remain safe.
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I want to help you get more out of your mask, and that is the purpose of this article. We are out to help dogs, yes, that is why I have created this company. On the other hand, it would mean the world to me to make this a safer world for mankind. We take our role seriously and want you to survive COVID and whatever comes next.
First of all, please wash your mask daily. It's handy to have a second one for the next day, but most times it will dry overnight, depending on the relative humidity where you live. Washing is easy, but care is not common sense, so let me share some ideas from the mistakes I made.
1. Remove your mask using the string. Remember, the front of the mask is meant to make the air droplets slide down. They don't automatically slide 'off' at the end of the day. You could have quite a collection on the outside surface...that is the mask doing its job, keeping them away from your breath. Do 'not' touch the front of the mask. Remove the filter if you have one, before washing; throw it out at the end of the day if it is subject to heavy use. On that note, you may not want a filter in addition to the three layers you already have if you are jogging or conducting heavy work-outs; it nearly killed me (yes we run all types of tests on these before you get them!).
2. Under 'no' circumstances touch the inside of the mask, you don't want to
contaminate it. This is closest to your breath.
3. At the end of the day, place the mask in a bowl (preferably stainless steel) or your sink. Removing it with your strings lay it down in the sink/bowl face down (ie white facing up). Now, add 3 servings of liquid hand soap onto the inside (it will bubble up and cover the outside as well). Leave it in there for 10 minutes. This will break down the cell walls of anything touching the mask.
4. After 10-15 minutes, pick it up and rinse it well. Hang it by the string and let it dry overnight. It should be dry the next day if you are don't live in a highly humid environment. Alternatively, you can throw it in the wash, delicate cycle. Do not microwave or place the mask in an oven of any kind to dry it; man-made materials melt and burn.
HINTS:
A. Do not place the mask to dry somewhere where there is a risk of contamination (ie near worn clothes).
B. Only remove or wear it with the strings.
C. Tighten it up as much or as little as you need depending on your environment.
D. Use a PM 2.5 filter and replace it daily. Yes, it costs to do so, but this is your life
E. Be careful, anything can get you sick. Wear gloves when pumping gas (how many people touched that nozzle?). Door handles, car door handles, boxes in the mail. Groceries. No, don't get paranoid, that is unhealthy. Be careful. Look at how many people tested positive. Realize people as young as 9 died. Even if you think you're immune because you are young, it can still damage your lungs permanently.
COVID is not just another flu. This virus can enter your system and fool your bodyinto thinking it is not foreign for a week or more so you do not develop antibodies until they have reached a critical mass. Please take it seriously so you can enjoy your beautiful life. It is a gift and every day counts. Be careful out there. Being careful may not completely protect you but not being careful can kill you. Be careful as we count on each one of you to be our future customers as we roll out our brand with more and more products for you to enjoy...we really need you to be alive so you can buy them!!!
Be healthy and safe
Stefano Riznyk
CEO and Chief Creative Designer
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We welcome you to Antonio Stefano, which is much much more than any fashion brand you have ever encountered. There are many unique aspects to us: our love for animals, our desire to use paper, not plastics for shipping (yes, much more expensive) for our earth, and our desire to provide you not only with a top quality product, but also a product that does what it’s supposed to do, making you very happy and loyal customer. More about those issues in other blogs. This one will explain how we got into COVID masks.
Although I launched Antonio Stefano in 2016 and our ties have been sold worldwide amongst a high-end crowd, being busy as a lawyer, I did not have the time to devote to marketing nor did I have the contacts to companies I could trust to do what they promised and I just left the company to take care of itself. However, with COVID, we thought of turning lemons into lemonade and helping all the dogs who have been abused; so many more as a result of COVID. So, we decided to ascertain what we could do with my diverse background, and voila, masks made sense. I have a degree in biochemistry and genetics and that, combined with the fact that I went to fashion school for a year, finally made business sense.
The masks we market are not just masks. What’s the sense in having a mask because the law states you should when it doesn’t protect you? Our lives depend on our mask. I spent an hour a day (law makes you a great researcher) reading articles about COVID and masks and all that went with that. I felt that I was a person at risk, and so were many of my friends…what to do?
The next step was to find a great manufacturer in the United States. At least here, I was able to control the manufacturing, child labor, and COVID protections. We spent 2 weeks calling a number of manufacturers and only one ever returned our call. As luck would have it, these were lovely people we had met at Magic, one of the fashion industry’s largest conferences (65,000+ people a year in Vegas). They were the right choice for a number of great reasons, including customer service, communication, and quality, amongst others. They entertained my many requests for changes, modifications, adjustments, etc that go into any fashion article of any value; never complaints or issues, just a FedEx the next day with the new version.
After the many changes, the good news is that we received what we wanted. The bad news is that the cost of producing them in the US was high, and that is because the sewing on our masks is all conducted by hand. In China, it is either hand-made or machine-made but we could not risk any lack of COVID controls (no offense to China or the Chinese of course as they can conduct great work; however, we do not know the truth behind their statistics re COVID and they use a lot of child labor). Our local factory has 100% daily testing of all its employees. Why? Because the owners don’t want COVID and on the other hand, I don’t want my masks to be poisonous. On that note, I have to laugh when I hear companies advertising “we send our masks from our US based offices” LOL; that means they are not made in the US, they think people are stupid or want to trick them…welcome to a lawyer’s world!
Once we found our manufacturer, we had to deal with the various types of materials and we tested so so so many. We needed to find something that worked in protecting the person, but then we had to consider a big impediment a human provides: they have to breathe. We had to find a way to allow for protection while at the same time allowing for a comfort level. At the time, our biggest competition was the mask that had the breathing valves, and yes, we actually considered them, but we had to obtain them from China, and that slowed that conversation down. The good news is that (if you read blog 1) that the Center For Disease Control recommends to avoid them as they don’t protect the public or the person wearing them; they serve no purpose. On one hand, they are easy to breathe through (our challenge) but as we later found out, the easier it is to breathe through, the lesser the protection provided.
With that out of the way, the next challenge was the ‘surgical mask’ as they call it, or the blue disposable one that is the cheapest one on the market. I wore those when nothing was available. However, a friend of mine, a fellow scientist (once you are trained as a scientist you always think that way---these ‘arts’ degrees are useless in training a mind how to think in business) pointed out that the blue mask is waterproof and mine isn’t; he ran water from a sink and it did not penetrate the mask. That sounded threatening until it occurred to me that if you cannot pass water through it then how does air get through? Well, once he wrapped it around his face he was unable to breathe….hello…the way you breathe through those (remember the rule of least resistance) is by pulling and exhaling air through the top and bottom where it is not wrapped around your face. What does that mean? The air you are inhaling and exhaling is completely unfiltered! So, there goes that theory. Also, when I saw the YouTube video about how they are manufactured, all over the floor, people walking on them, that changed the respect I had for those. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8SAYIGZA3g.
Now we had to ascertain what would be safe. We purchased a number of masks from competitors; most seemed machine-made from aboard, the prices reflected that fact. We had surmised that the we required two things: a wicking (ie moisture-repelling) fabric and we required several layers but not connected! If we have connected layers then air will seek the level of least resistance again. However, if we have separate and distinct layers, then the COVID will have to attack all three separately to get through. This made better sense. Although each layer offers resistance, it has to make it through three, not just one. In addition, we decided to add the option of a PM 2.5 filter to one of the layers so that in essence is one layer plus 5 = 6, then two more to go. With the filter, we notice that if the seam wasn’t high enough, gravity would move it down, so back to retooling and now we moved the seam high enough to force the filter to the top of the mask and force your nose (most of your inhaling is nasal) to breathe filtered air.
The next step was to ascertain the fabrics to use. We had three layers: the outside, the lining, and the face shield. At first we thought cotton was the right material but it occurred to us that cotton absorbs, it does not repel moisture, so cotton would be the worst choice; think of your t-shirt when you perspire. That took all of 3 minutes. As much as we prefer not to use man-made alternatives, we are dealing with lives, so exceptions take place. I remembered from fashion school that certain fabrics have high wicking propensities (ie repel moisture well); these were our friends.
One of the biggest risks with COVID-19 is that people can create a cloud around themselves with the air they breathe. This cloud can be full of COVID particles that float with the air in the moisture content (humidity) of the air. They can last for 3.5 hours; this is a threat.
This brought another aspect into the conversation: electrostatic masks. There are two schools of thought on this and I don’t think you can change the beliefs of one side or the other on this. Surgical masks often advertise that they are electrostatic. The public doesn’t know what this means so they assume it’s good. Here’s the story: an electrostatic mask actually attracts moisture droplets and then holds on to them. I don’t like that. It’s like walking into a room, asking for a fight, and hoping you win. I would rather walk in and have the bad people ‘slide’ away. This is what our masks do; they allow water droplets to slide down them, rather than attracting them. If there is any sort of defect in an electrostatic mask, you could inhale a fatal dose of COVID-19. By the way, in manufacturing there are often defects, ask anyone in fashion, it’s normal, it’s OK and we try to eliminate those before the public sees them. If they slip through, we exchange them, knowing a very small percentage may have a problem of one type or another (there are ‘so’ many parts to a garment, you would be surprised). We designed our masks in order to have them repel the liquid like a raincoat, not attract them. So, we eliminated electrostatic as an option.
The second to last step involved finding a way to have them fully protect you. As most masks depend on the air on the sides of your nose and by your chin to provide air, it did not work for us as that would mean you would be breathing about 20% (possibly) contaminated air. This is what the inexpensive surgical masks have to do, at least the waterproof ones. We had to go a step better. The second problem was that they hung on with ear wraps. After severe testing we noticed that after a while the elastics on the washable ones deteriorate and the mask no longer stands up in your face, it sags.
This is when we came up with the last architectural piece: the string. We thought it would be the one way to be sure you could wrap your entire face. Here we also tested different strings and came up with a stretchable one, one that allowed you to easily tighten or loosen the grip, depending on what you were doing. Additionally, we wanted one that was easy to slip on. This is where the one-piece design of the string came in. You can have the mask on, get in your car, and slip it off your head, allowing it to fall down and be ready before you next exit your vehicle, easy. The 'U' at the bottom of the mask can also be at the top, they both work well, depending on where you want the knot to be. You only need to tie it once a day and you are set. Well, we weren't quite done yet. What were we to do with the ends of the strings? If we added plastic ends as you have with shoelaces, the constant washes would lead to swelling within the plastic and in time it would deteriorate. That didn't work. Then, in keeping with our brand, we looked at gold ends. They would look good, but again, with constant washing, the color would deteriorate. We could always just tie the ends but then we would risk fraying Solution? A hot knife to cauterize the ends at 800 degrees F. Now our manufacturers had to hot-knife both ends, mask by mask before they were sealed. Last but not least, we had to experiment with various lengths, so we measured a number of people of different ages and head sizes in order to come up with a length that works for everyone. Finally!
The next step was to design a mask in such a way that you could wear the same mask to work, to court, to meet your governor, or gamble in Monaco. We had to find an artist. Luckily, and purely by coincidence, we met a wonderful artist and designer, Matt Forderer, and we thought of redesigning the ties we had originally designed in Italy in order to fit a mask. In this way, you could have a first-class tie that fits your mask, and voila, a male or female has a matching outfit. He did that, and very well. We took our best-selling ties and made designs for our masks, and came up with 15 (we have 20 ties).
This is the journey your mask went through. We are not stopping there. We are now in research and development to ascertain if we can improve on anything. We are researching and testing various fabrics, analyzing various factors such as wicking quality, the addition of a non-toxic chemical to increase wicking, thread count, and many other factors. For each material, at the very least we require:
There are many more requirements but we will keep on testing and working hard to have the best mask out there. The N95 is great but in the US as you know largely unavailable. Some mask needs to protect us. I know the risks; I live in a beach community and so few people wear masks you wouldn’t think there was an epidemic: I get it as my life is on the line too.
Although I have met my goal of expressing to you the journey, I will state one last thing for your benefit. Be careful. Having spoken to my friends who are scientists, they seem to agree that in the US we are beyond the point of no return. In other words, most of us will catch COVID. Most of us will survive it, but some of us will die a gruesome and painful death. One of my medical professional friends had an interesting outlook. She stated that we will all encounter it; the question is whether we have a large dose or a small dose. If we have a small dose, our body can fight it and we will survive it. If we have a large dose, it will continue to replicate at an exponential rate and will kill us. If you have to get it, try to make it a small dose. Use gloves at a grocery store. Don’t touch boxes, mail, door handles, and other items of that nature without a Kleenex or paper towel. There is one last piece of information…I just read in a scientific journal that COVID-19 harbors itself in your body and has a way of deceiving our bodies into thinking that it is not foreign so that we do not create antibodies whilst it has a chance to replicate….once again …keep the doses to a minimum. Be careful. This is not the time to take risks or show off…it’s the time to live to enjoy another day…and to tell your family and friends how much they mean to you….
Be careful out there
Stefano Riznyk
CEO and Chief Creative Director
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https://www.travelandleisure.com/airlines-airports/delta/delta-air-lines-banning-face-masks-with-valve
July 23, 2020-Bothe the CDC and a Mayo Clinic doctor stating that in a mask, the more layers the better. It seems the 'easy breathe' masks with the breathing valves are not effective for the wearer or persons around him or her. When choosing a mask, please keep these considerations in mind.
With more young people being seen in hospitals, it is important to consider whether the wearer is wearing a mask because the law states so or whether he or she are actually seeking protection. On July 26th, a 9-year old died of Coronavirus in Florida; the girl had no underlying health issues:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/25/us/kimora-lynum-dies-of-coronavirus/index.html
As there is very little information out there as to what to do or not do, it has been good to find 'some' information to guide us. The full article is here:
The CDC finding:
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